Question the Thought

Thoughts. We all have them. I read we can have 50,000-80,000 thoughts in a day. That’s a lot! Some thoughts like, ‘check the dryer’ are no brainers. We often stop what we are doing and follow the thought. Other thoughts come to us and we don’t even give them a second thought…we let them slide on through our brains. But what if we took a second and thought to ourselves, ‘where did that thought come from?’ ‘Why did I just think that?’ I have been doing a lot of that lately. Questioning my thoughts. So many posts will be about my discoveries. Here is one example I’d like to share.

I teach preschool special education. I have a saying that I have said many times, in fact I have said it on a promotional video for my school district. It is often quoted in meetings, in trainings and in interviews. My saying is, “we are all working on something.” When you teach special education, you realize a little more the struggles people face when it comes to learning, moving and expressing yourself. All things that most of us take for granted. As a preschool teacher you realize 3, 4 and 5 year olds have not been on this earth very long, so they too have a lot to learn. So when that quote popped into my head, I stopped and questioned my thought. Why did that particular quote come to “me”? I think it came to remind myself that I too, as an adult and everyone that I encounter, is also “working on something.” It’s so easy for us to forget that. We can’t as easily detect that someone is “working on something” like we can when we see a person who has special needs. We take it for face value that when an adult is acting like they are doing ok, they are. While inside themselves or in their home life they may be struggling and suffering deeply. It was a strong reminder to myself that my quote “we are all working on something” really does apply to ALL of us!

So as those thoughts come to you, question them, listen to them instead of letting them pass on through. “He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.” Isaiah 50:4b NIV. Question. Ask God is there anything I am to learn from this? Is there any action I need to take or NOT take because of this thought? For we are all being taught, “we are all working on something!”

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for reminding me, and reminding me gently that I am a work in progress. Help give me the patience to be kind to myself as I learn from You. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.